Tax Breaks

Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr. has paid more than $3,600 in back property taxes on a rental home he owns, months after it emerged that he'd wrongly been receiving a homestead tax break on the house for years. "I was very happy to pay it, to tell you the truth," he said Tuesday. "If I owed it, I wanted to pay it. " Conaway paid the bill Dec. 21, the same day city finance officials were quoted in a Baltimore Sun article saying they were still awaiting a check from him. Conaway says that's the first time he knew how much money he owed.

Commuter advocates and Maryland lawmakers say they will fight to renew an expiring tax credit that benefits mass-transit users, including MARC riders. Current federal law allows commuters to withhold up to $230 in pre-tax income each month that can be used to pay for train and bus fares, but the cap will fall to $125 a month next year because Congress didn't renew the more generous break. The difference means a 22 percent increase in commuting costs for some, which can translate into hundreds of dollars a year.

Eugene Schoene maxed out a credit card, drained his checking account and borrowed money from a relative. It was the only way, he says, to pay an unexpected property tax bill of gigantic proportions. His tab from the city Bureau of Treasury Management's Collections Division: $21,939. Schoene is part of a group of Baltimore homeowners who have recently gotten hefty property tax bills going back four years after revelations that they were improperly collecting "homestead" credits — a widespread problem highlighted in an investigation published Sunday by The Baltimore Sun. A 65-year-old schoolteacher, Schoene says he didn't know he was getting undeserved breaks on three rental homes in Northeast Baltimore.

Jim Loukota of Baltimore County is trying to make the best of a soured investment. The 60-year-old retired electrician owns 100 shares of First Mariner Bancorp that he bought for about $14.50 per share in the late 1990s and closed Monday a little over 5 cents a share. He wants to sell the stock in the Baltimore-based bank holding company before the end of the year so he can use the loss to offset income on his tax return. But the discount brokerage that originally sold him the stock says it doesn't deal in shares trading below $1. And he's having trouble finding anyone else willing to help him sell his paper stock certificate.

The Baltimore Sun reported recently that Harford County has a $32 million surplus. My question is, where did this surplus come from? My guess is from the overtaxed residents of Harford County. With this amount of surplus, it is obvious that real estate taxes are excessive. The county executive, David Craig, means well by proposing bonuses for all Harford County employees ("Harford's Craig responds on bonuses," Dec. 8). However, all residents of Harford County who pay property taxes should be receiving a bonu8s as well since they are the people who are being drained because their taxes are increasing faster than their income.

Failure of the congressional "supercommittee" to strike a deal on deficit reduction has left lawmakers scrambling to address a half-dozen bills of major importance to Marylanders, from extending tax breaks to paying Medicare doctors to securing federal money for roads near military bases. Before the end of the month, a bitterly divided Congress must decide whether to keep paying unemployment benefits that 14,300 out-of-work Maryland residents collect and whether to continue a payroll tax cut received by 2.6 million wage earners in the state.

I share the outrage of Mary Pat Clarke at her fellow council members for voting down the property tax credit allowance to those who are investing the kind of energy this and every urban center needs to survive the challenge of attracting new taxpayers to the city ("City council committee nixes tax breaks for urban farmers," Nov. 23). Marta H. Mossburg wrote recently about human nature being risk-averse in trying to explain how city voters might choose to reelect officials who follow a familiar path toward failure.

The developer of a planned affordable-housing community in Glen Burnie will start construction on the project next month, after the Anne Arundel County Council voted to grant the company a key tax break on the project. The council's 4-3 vote on the tax break for New York-based Conifer Realty allows the 36-unit project to move forward, despite complaints from residents who said the development has the potential to bring more crime to the area and decrease property values. Those assertions were voiced by County Councilman John J. Grasso, who represents the Glen Burnie area and has said it already has an abundant stock of low-income housing.

As their bus rumbled through housing projects and dilapidated schools and toward Harbor East — one of the crown jewels of Baltimore's revitalized waterfront — Zion Baptist Church Pastor Marshall Prentice asked his parishioners how they felt after hearing about the millions of tax breaks given to developers there. "I'm a teacher, and I'm really upset," said Linda Jones, 62, recalling the three-inch cockroaches that scurried through her school and the library that was shut down due to budget cuts.